WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Wednesday, June 06, 2018

BIG CAT ROUND UP

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. 

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.


FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology? 

Well, everything, actually! 

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in.

Bird watchers special efforts to save endangered g...


THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SINGS QUIETLY TO HIMSELF WHILST ROCKING BACKWARDS AND FORWARD

The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
 
I have been quite productive these past few days and am more than slightly smug about it. The new issue of Animals & Men is free to read via the CFZ website and both sets of blogs, and I have done the first proof of Lars' book on the mystery beasts of Scandinavia and the Baltic states...
 
And for those of you who are interested in such things, the Gonzo Privacy Policy is here:
 
 
And the CFZ Privacy Policy is here:
 
 
Forgive me for always banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for as many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
 
 
And if you fancy supporting us on Patreon:
 
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore seems to be in order: if you want to make me a happy fellow, you can:
 
buy my novel:
buy the record by the main protagonist of the novel who isn't me in an elephant mask, honest:
buy my single:
 
But for now, here is the news:
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:   Mary Hopkin - Temma ...
LEONARD COHEN NEWS
YES feat ARW News
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN MY DAY J...
 
Gonzo Weekly #289
THE JAH WONDERFUL ISSUE
 
We continue to trawl the counterculture with this Jah Wonderful issue  of Gonzo Weekly featuring Alan on Misty in Roots, Doug on the Dixie Dregs, Jon on Political biopics, John on Ryley Walker, C J Stone on Chaos Magic, Graham on Hawkwind and Richard on Bob Weir and we have lots more besides...
 
#Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, AND Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, there are columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, and Roy Weard, and C J Stone, and Mr Biffo and Kev Rowlands AND the irrepressible Corinna . There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and tiger quolls who are havinga little snooze (OK, nothing to do with small dasyurids who are a little sleepy, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
 
This issue features:
 
Jeremy Thorpe, Dave Bainbridge & Sally Minnear, Brand X, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Carl Palmer, Gorillaz, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Elton John, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Stewart Lupton, Andy MacQueen, Tsehaytu Beraki, Phillip Ernest Emmanuel, Jürgen Marcus, Eyio Di Marzo, Josh Martin, Alan LaVern Bean, Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, Rick Wakeman, Paice, Ashton & Lord, The Mitchell Trio, Doug Harr, Dixie Dregs, Alan Dearling, Misty in Roots, Richard Foreman, Bob Weir, John Brodie-Good, Ryley Walker, Kev Rowland, Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella, Mike Lepond's Silent Assassins, Necropanther, Rick Springfield, Ring of Gyges, Sainted Sinners, Scumpulse, Chris Stone, Chaos Magic, Hawkwind, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Elvis, Beatles, Britney Spears,
Janis Joplin
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 288 (Paula Frazer)
Issue 287 (Boss Goodman)
Issue 286 (Monty Python)
Issue 285 (ELP)
Issue 284 (Straqngelove)
Issue 283 (Record Store Day)
Issue 282 (Neil Finn and Fleetwood Mac)
Issue 281 (Carl Palmer)
Issue 280 (Steve Andrews)
 
 
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
 
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
 
* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...
 
* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk
 
* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!
 
* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 58 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A hairy snake in the U.S.A and other hairy freaks

Hi y`all

I came across these stories trawling the Net the other day for cryptozoology gems and I wasn`t disappointed!

This story is from the Evansville Courier and Press, a newspaper of Indiana on April 2nd 1891:

A COW`S TAIL SNAKE

The Remarkable reptile seen by a sober Wisconsin man

" Snake stories grow alarmingly scarce of later years, but a correspondent of Nature`s Realm relieves the dearth somewhat by telling one  which has never been printed before but which ought to have been told just after the (Civil? - R) war.The correspondent says " In the fall of 1869 I was in La Crosse, Wis,and having some business in La Crescent, on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi I crossed the river in a ferry boat. There is,or was, an arm of the river on the Minnesota side called, in western parlance, a `slew`. Over this there is a bridge; on going over it i saw a snake coiled on a `butt`  that had been sawed off a tree of about two feet in diameter, and it was floating in the water.The snake was so different from any animal of the kind I had ever before seen that I gazed at it for fully five minutes...it was red and more extraordinary still .it was exactly like a red cow`s tail. the hair on it was fully an inch long and as thick as that growing on a cow`s tail. Having no means of capturing the snake I determined to make it show itself, and flung a piece of stick at it awoke at the splash in the water,uncoiled itself and dived into the slough it was certainly six feet long or more.."

From the Punjab as reported in the 1910 edition of Folk-Lore :" Tir mar or ghore dangan,udna,or jatal is said to be a hairy snake see Panjab Folklore Notes page 216.

This here is from the Kalamazoo Gazette of Aug 5th 1911.(Sorry about the poor editing)

 

Finally, here is a blog on some hairy Patagonian snakes http://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/2009/12/hairy-snake.html


TERATOLOGY: Two-headed snake discovered in New Orleans backyard


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NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)





Whatever the case, the Loch Ness Monster's day of reckoning might finally be upon it. A team of international scientists have travelled to Scotland's ...


The Loch Ness Monster has baffled scientists for centuries, but a new group of experts are now hoping modern technology will reveal what really lives ...


THYLACINES IN THE NEWS - Mangy Fox alert



A man was shocked to find CCTV footage of a mysterious animal walking across his driveway around 2am.
The image shows the animal, which has four legs and a long tail that extends backwards and meets the ground.
The tail is what makes this creature difficult to identify, as the body of the animal resembles a dog-like creature.
The unknown creature was spotted walking across the man's driveway at 2am
The unknown creature was spotted walking across the man's driveway at 2am
The man posted the image to Imgur, asking members of the website if they knew what it could be.
Some people commented on the image, stating they believe the animal to be a Chupacabra.
A Chupacabra is a legendary folklore creature originating in Latin America.
Others believed it was a Tasmanian Tiger, otherwise known as a Thylacine, an animal that has been extinct for over 80 years.  

Animals & Men #64/5


2.   Contents
3.   Faculty
4.   Editorial
8.   A Legal Matter
9.   In Memoriam
11.  Newsfile: New and Rediscovered
26.  Newsfile: Blue Dogs
28.  Newsfile: Man beasts
30.  Newsfile: Mystery cats
34.  Newsfile: Aquatic monsters
27.  CARL MARSHALL'S STRANGE SCIENCE: 21st Century Sea Serpents
70.  Watcher of the Skies by Corinna Downes
84.  Memories of the Megalodon: A Look at Giant Shark Reports by Colin Schneider
89.  Weird Weekend North 2
93.  Mermaidsin the Dutch Tradition by Loes Modderman
113. Duties for regional representatives a discussion document
114. Letters to the Editor
118. Reviews

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

ON THIS DAY IN -  1674 - Sivaji crowned himself King of India. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Longest recorded whale shark migration eclipses 20...
  • ‘Paradise and hell’: the battle to save the forest...
  • If These Tiny Marsupials' Marathon Mating Sessions...
  • Red squirrels 'may have introduced' leprosy to Bri...
  • Cuckoo bee species 'hiding in plain sight'
  • 'Memory transplant' achieved in snails



  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)